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August 28, 2006
Parent Post
My original post asking Deer Creek Parents to educate
themselves on the DCSF before donating was not meant
to be skeptical or cynical. I pointed out that in the
past, the foundation has been very helpful. I did not
ask people not to donate. I merely put out the facts
and asked people to gather information for themselves
on the direction of the current leadership.
Regarding the $25,000 donation
for computers from last spring, this was not an
attempt to “dig up bones” from last year.
These bones were never buried. Never did we hear from
the DCSF, the School Board or the Principal that they
understood why so many parents found this donation to
be bothersome. Never did they acknowledge that this
was not the proper way to treat all of our children
in a fair manner.
At their meeting following the announcement of the
donation, the majority of the trustees that now remain
on the DCSF, showed more concern with how the information
had “leaked out” and how to stop further leaks,
than concern that it might be a dangerous precedent
for a parent to walk in and state what they wanted in
their child’s classroom.
Suggestions were made how to make the DCSF more “user
friendly” and less mysterious. Simple ideas such
as rotating the meeting place each month to different
schools, like the school board does, or having a parent
representative elected from each school to be present,
vote, and report back to their individual school. Not
another trustee INVITED to participate, as the current
method of gaining trustees is, but ELECTED in a spring
election for the following year.
No effort of any kind has been made to make this foundation
more approachable. No effort has been made to keep another
donation from being presented in an inappropriate manner.
This group has a lot of resources at their disposal.
Why not be open and forthcoming with what’s going
on?
Regarding the astronomical growth of the district and
the lack of “…enough money to meet the educational
needs”, look where your money is being spent. Look
around your schools and see if the money being spent
is to the student’s advantage. Do leather couches,
professional murals and flat screen tv’s in the
front lobbies add to the education or our children?
How often do our kids even see these things? Maybe once
in the morning as they walk in. If they ride the bus,
odds are they won’t see the front lobby at all.
Watch for a chimney being built outside Prairie Vale
this fall, because I wouldn’t be surprised if Santa
delivered laptop computers to a certain class this Christmas
break. Now you can call me cynical.
Our Reply
For the record, the administration at the school said
they were going to establish a technology review committee
made up of teachers, administration, parents and such
to review all of the needs of all of the schools. To
the best of our knowledge, this has yet to happen but
it may just be a timing issue.
August 26, 2006
Parent Post
Before more skepticism and cynical input is shared
on this website regarding the Deer Creek School Foundation.
I would suggest all DC patrons to get to one of the
meetings. The DCSF has done so much good for the schools.
Yes I agree with the webmaster that DCSF needs to get
their minutes on their website. This would clear up
a lot of confusion about the "going-ons" of
the foundation. The concern of the $25,000.00 donation
was addressed last May with an appropriate resolution.
If patrons can not make these meetings and the minutes
are not documented on the website, then perhaps the
DCSPOST webmaster can attend the meeting and address
the concerns of DC patrons regarding the recent contributions.
Sorry I hate to start a new school year digging up bones
from last school year. The fact is the district is growing
astronomically, there isn't enough money within the
district to help with educational needs. Thank goodness
for organizations like DCSF, PTO's, and booster clubs.
Our Reply
We appreciate your feedback and suggestion that people
might attend the meetings and address the concerns of
the patrons. We have been to a few DCSF meetings and
we attended the last general meeting of the foundation.
We would rather suggest that other patrons go to the
meetings and get involved.
While some people will look at these sequences of posts
as negative, we actually see it as a positive. The more
communication that happens within the district and the
more people that get involved, is a good thing. Yes
there are going to be times when the communication will
get emotional; but, when everybody puts asides their
differences and works together, phenomenal results happen
in a short period of time. That is exactly what happened
with the laptop issue, the greenhouse issue, and the
safety concerns at Prairie Vale. Hopefully in a few
months we will see the same results with this issue.
August 25, 2006
Parent Post
The Enrichment Foundation allocates the grant money
equally. The grant money is divided up per student and
then the appropriate amount is given to each school.
I have served on the Foundation in the past and have
been involved with the grant committee. Prairie Vale's
grant amount was less because grants were submitted
that did not meet the scoring rubric criteria. Prairie
Vale later submitted more grants that met the criteria
and were approved.
The Foundation strives to make sure that each student
is impacted by grant money. Being good stewards of Deer
Creek patrons’ donations is of utmost importance
to the Foundation. Even though a grant may sound good
on paper, much research and thought is put into awarding
grants so that the most number of students will be impacted
for the longest amount of time.
I am proud of the Foundation and support their goals.
I will continue to support the Foundation even though
my daughter has graduated and moved on to college. I
encourage all patrons to do the same. Even a $5 or $10
donation will greatly impact our children and their
future.
Our Reply
Thank you for the valuable input. We want to go on
record again to state our support of the DCSF. Even
though we may disagree with some of the things they
do, we cannot thank them enough for their continuous
support of the district and our children.
We certainly encourage everybody to get involve with
the district in any way they possibly can. Any support.
Whether it be financially or volunteering of time. Will
as, the individual stated above, greatly impact our
children and their future.
August 24, 2006
Parent Post
I appreciate seeing the current list of grants that
were funded by the Foundation (we received the list
last night at Parent Night). I, as a Prairie Vale parent,
would hesitate to donate after seeing the small amount
that went to our school. I am curious why that amount
was so small compared to the other three schools. It
seems that the funds should be distributed more evenly.
Our Reply
On the surface we would agree with you. Before drawing
any conclusions we would recommend asking the following
questions:
- How many grants requests did Prairie Vale submit?
- What was the distribution of funds the year before?
- Does the Foundation have any criteria to evenly
distribute the funds?
There maybe more to the story then was in the handout
that was provided. It also might be reasonable to expect
that Rose Union may get the lion’s share this year
since it just opened. The fact remains the foundation
can distribute the funds in any manner it sees fit.
Anyone can volunteer to be on the foundations grant
committee and be involved in the grant approval process.
You can also choose to donate your money directly to
the school of your choice by donating it through a different
organization such as the PTO. Trust us when we tell
you that those organizations would love to have your
donations or your time.
August 23, 2006
Parent Post
As we start the new school year, we are once again
asked by the Deer Creek Schools Foundation (Formerly
Deer Creek Community Enrichment Foundation) to give
them our money. We are told on their handout that “Every
family at Deer Creek is expected to participate in the
enrichment of the academic and artistic advancement
of their child’s educational experience.”
Looking at their past list of grants, scholarships and
awards tells us that this Foundation has provided very
well for Deer Creek Schools.
But I would ask you to educate yourselves before donating
your money this year. Ask questions of the Executive
committee and Trustees listed on their web page. Find
out if their core values and recent changes in their
bylaws are consistent with how you’d like your
money to be spent.
The first two core values listed are:
- “We impact the academic success of every Deer
Creek student.”
- “We value creative and innovative education.”
Was this what we saw when they were willing to funnel
a $25,000 donation last year for computers for a select
group of students? In valuing creative education, did
they research the impact of computers on said group
of students at that grade level or did they just rush
to help purchase a new toy or status symbol? The foundation
wouldn’t even have profited from any matching funds
from this donation (although most of them didn’t
know this because they didn’t understand their
own regulations).
An answer on their list of commonly asked questions
states that the “DCSF is a completely separate
organization from the DC school system and has nothing
to do with the school system administratively or politically”.
Again, I would ask you if this was demonstrated when
trying to purchase equipment that would demand a change
in curriculum for its use.
According to their rules, any parent contributing >$1000
can stipulate where that money goes. We saw the danger
of this last spring when the computer issue came up.
One would hope that changes would be made to ensure
that this type of issue didn’t arise again. Unfortunately,
that doesn’t appear to be the case.
Instead of becoming more open and available to Deer
Creek Parents, this organization is becoming more controlling.
Why don’t they post their minutes on their website
or make them available to be picked up at the schools?
Why did they recently change the bylaws to make only
the trustees voting members on anything? (Previously
anyone donating over $100 could vote on changes in bylaws
and new trustees) Why did they change their bylaws to
include the ability to vote out a current trustee with
or WITHOUT just cause? How does a person become a trustee?
Another of their common questions listed is “Is
the DCSF an elitist organization?” One would think
they would recognize a problem if this is a common question.
Their answer is “We are made up solely of parents
(just like yourself) of Deer Creek students. We have
no political agenda. We all share one common interest,
to enhance academics at Deer Creek schools. …”
Is this group made up of a good representation of Deer
Creek Parents? Are they looking out for the best interest
of all students or have they changed their agenda? Are
they in line with their own mission statement which
reads: “The Deer Creek Schools Foundation promotes
and funds the academic and artistic achievement of all
students and teachers of Deer Creek Public Schools”
or are they becoming more involved with the future planning
of the school system?
Take some time to ask some questions before sending
your donation.
Our Reply
Foundations have always intrigued me. Why would you
squirrel money away when your schools don’t have
enough books or paper or other supplies? Is it the equivalent
of being ‘Savings Poor’? That is probably
over simplifying the issue, but you get the point.
As for the Deer Creek Schools Foundation we can’t
say enough about all the foundation has done over the
years. The support they have provided the schools and
the teachers is phenomenal at the least. The Foundation
recently went through a major overhaul of how they run
their organization. Having been through a couple, we
know the amount of hard work that the volunteers of
the organization had to contribute. We also believe
that they are headed down the right path.
With all that said the parent has brought up some good
points.
- Why doesn’t the foundation make public the
meeting agendas and minutes (for the record we have
been asking for this for months)?
- If the foundation is separate from the school why
is there a foundation report at every board meeting
and a representative from the board as a non-voting
trustee?
- Why would the PTO be removed from the nonvoting
trustees when it plays such an intricate rule in providing
for our teachers? The board also hears a report on
PTO activities every month.
- Why make the statement that “Every family at
Deer Creek is expected to participate in the enrichment
of the academic and artistic advancement of their
child’s educational experience.”? Isn’t
that what we do everyday?
We also would like to remind people there are other
ways to that individuals can participate in the enrichment
of the academic and artistic advancement of their child’s
educational experience. Below is a list of Organizations
that help the students of Deer Creek that rely upon
the financial assistance from parents.
- Parent Teachers Organization- Every School
- Band Booster Club
- Pom Booster Club
- Football Booster Club
- Softball Booster Club
- Basketball Booster Club- Boys and Girls
- Baseball Booster Club
- Soccer Booster Club
- Wrestling Booster Club
- Cheer Booster Club
- National Honor Society
- Track Booster Club
- Builders Club
- Key Club
- All of the Parent Support Groups
Any group that was omitted was done so by accident.
If we missed your group please let us know and we will
add it to the list.
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